1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an electronic musical instrument, and a music performance information inputting apparatus capable of inputting music performance information into the electronic musical instrument. More specifically, the present invention is directed to an electronic musical instrument and a music performance information inputting apparatus thereof capable of entering various types of music performance information in a simple operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in keyboard type electronic musical instruments, the keyboard is employed as music performance information inputting apparatuses for inputting music performance information. Only paying an attention to the function capable of instructing tone generations, the respective keys of this keyboard may be regarded as switches turned ON/OFF in response to key on/key off operations. As a consequence, the keyboard merely may designate 12.times.i pieces of pitches such as pitch names of C.sub.i, C.sub.i #, D.sub.i, D.sub.i #, E.sub.i, F.sub.i, F.sub.i #, G.sub.i, G.sub.i #, A.sub.i, A.sub.i #, and B.sub.i from the infinite number of the pitches. In these pitch names, the suffix of "i" represents octave. It should be understood that the above-described 12.times.i pieces of pitches are referred to as "specific pitches".
On the other hand, in general, electronic musical instruments can produce musical tones based on a plurality of timbre. Accordingly, players select desired timbre by using operation panels and thereafter play electronic musical instruments. In this case, tone generations are instructed by using a keyboard even when any sorts of timbre are selected. However, when predetermined sorts of timbre are selected by manipulating operation panels, there are certain possibilities that musical effects specific to the selected timbre could not be achieved by using only the keyboard.
In general, for instance, when a violin is played, vibratos are applied to a musical tone of the violin. However, in the case that an electronic musical instrument is played with timbre of a violin, it is not possible to apply vibratos to a musical tone of this violin by manipulating only a keyboard. In this case, such a vibrato effect is simulated by changing the pitches by manipulating a wheel, e.g., a bender wheel and a modulation wheel in the conventional electronic musical instrument.
However, when vibratos are applied, since players are required to simultaneously manipulate keyboards and wheels, high music playing techniques are necessarily needed.
Also, changing widths of pitches and changing speeds of pitches when vibratos are applied to musical tones of violins are very delicate. This very delicate change could be hardly realized by manipulating the wheels. This difficulty is caused by differences in the vibrato application operations. In other words, when the vibratos are applied to the generated musical tones of violins, the wheels are rotated, whereas when vibratos are produced by playing violins, strings are depressed and rubbed by players' fingers.
Furthermore, there are some cases that a sound volume is changed at the same time when vibratos are applied to musical tones. In this case, three manipulations must be carried out at the same time, namely a keyboard, a wheel, and a volume knob should be simultaneously manipulated. However, in the normal electronic music instrument, it is rather difficult to execute such simultaneous three-member manipulations. Also, there are certain possibilities that, for example, a sound volume and a pan-pot are varied at the same time during music play to thereby form a desirable sound field. In the normal electronic musical instrument, the sound volume control and the pan-pot control are performed by using separate handles. As a consequence, to form a desirable sound field, a plurality of handles must be simultaneously manipulated during music play, so that higher music performance techniques are necessarily required.